


Asylum of Doom

by ZimsMostLoyalServant



Category: Invader Zim
Genre: Gen, Ghosts, Or Was It A Dream?, Psychological Horror, Psychologists & Psychiatrists
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-01
Updated: 2020-11-01
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:21:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,829
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27328726
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZimsMostLoyalServant/pseuds/ZimsMostLoyalServant
Summary: After being dragged along on one of Dib's investigations, Gaz finds herself trapped in a nightmare that has her questioning her very reality.
Relationships: Dib & Gaz (Invader Zim)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 9





	Asylum of Doom

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone, and happy belated Halloween (yes, I know it's a day late, but stuff happens; still close enough to count). Welcome to a scary story I hope you'll all enjoy for the holiday. Just because we're going through a very different kind of horror in the real world, doesn't mean we can partake in some fitting fiction of the season.
> 
> I originally had the idea for this story after seeing an episode of the horror anthology series "The Haunting Hour" (don't feel bad if you haven't heard of it, it wasn't that big a deal), and to a lesser extent a certain episode of "Buffy". I originally envisioned it as pure horror, but for certain reasons I'll explain in the closing notes so I don't spoil anything, I didn't feel comfortable writing that anymore. But then, a few weeks ago I had a moment of inspiration, and suddenly realized how I could retool it into the form you're about to read. Again, I'll go into details at the end.
> 
> Nothing else to say, except to wish you all well in these troubling times. Beyond that, read on!

The building was a gothic cliche. A massive, rundown edifice of grey stone and black iron, with pointed spires topped by gargoyles, and every window long since cracked or outright smashed, which was still better than the one wing that looked like it had burned down a long time ago. The courtyard that had once held gardens of some kind were now barren of anything but overgrown weeds, which covered even the empty fountain midway between the building's front doors and the property's gates. Said gates were matching sets of rusty iron bars that were partly unhinged from their places set into the stone walls, topped by rusted barbed wire, that surrounded the entire property. And all of this being lit by the light of a full moon, while thunder rumbled from a storm far off in the distance, completed the stereotypically spooky imagery.

"If this place wasn't such a dump, it'd look pretty cool," Gaz commented from where she and Dib were standing on the dirt road that ran parallel to the gates, disappearing into the woods surrounding the building in every direction, "But remind me why you had to come all the way out to the middle of nowhere to look at an old building? And why you dragged me along with you?"

"This is the old Burke Lunatic Asylum," Dib explained, pulling some overgrowth away from next to the gate to reveal a bronze nameplate long since corroded fully green which still clearly listed that title, "Back in the first half of the 20th century, it was one of the most prominent mental hospitals in the country, considered the best place to tuck away anyone society deemed too abnormal. But what no one knew was how brutal the place was; patients were often restrained, drugged, and beaten just to keep them quiet and obedient, given ice baths and electroshock therapy to try and break them into so-called normality, and even lobotomized if all else failed. This eventually drove them to break out and rebel one night in 1945, and by the time the police arrived to put down the riot, half the inmates and staff were dead, and a whole wing had been completely burned out."

"Great history lesson. What's the point?" Gaz asked, crossing her arms and leaning against one of the bicycles she and Dib had ridden out here.

"The point is that urban legend says that the spirits of all those who died in the riot still haunt the ruins of the building," Dib said, "There are many accounts of people who have visited at night encountering the ghosts, or having visions of some kind that are attributed to them. What exactly those visions are tend to be pretty vague, admittedly, but they're said to be very intense."

"So you want to investigate yet another supposedly haunted building, which apparently makes people hallucinate or something, that's great," Gaz said dryly, "But that still doesn't answer my other question of why you made me come along too."

"I need a secondary witness to help back up any evidence I find," Dib replied, before frowning, "And I didn't _make_ you come, you agreed to after I promised to pay for Bloaty's for a month!"

"Mmph, whatever," Gaz said, "Let's just get this nonsense over with so we can go home."

Dib continued to frown at Gaz's attitude for a moment, before shaking it off with a sigh. Taking out his phone and switching on the video and flashlight apps, he turned toward the gates and shoved them open, then started making his way across the courtyard, Gaz halfheartedly following after him. Reaching the front doors of the building, he was surprised that he had to shove against the rotted wood a few times to actually force it open, but shrugged it off and continued inside.

The interior of the building was even more rundown than the exterior. Every bit of paint had long since peeled off the walls, which in many spots had cracked and showed signs of water damage. The floor was in a similar state, the linoleum long since warped and cracked, and everything covered in a thick coating of dust.

"We have now entered the ruins of the Burke Asylum," Dib said as he walked past the decrepit reception desk, panning his phone around to take in the whole entry foyer, "We've just set foot into these haunted halls, but already you can feel a chill in the air-"

"Oh please tell me you're not going to be narrating the entire time," Gaz groaned, face-palming.

"Well how else is the video supposed to properly coney the situation?" Dib asked, "Otherwise people are just going to be staring at a quiet screen until we find something interesting."

"Right, because I'm sure you're going to get a lot of hits on this," Gaz countered dryly, "Don't you tend to get more dislikes on your videos than actual views?"

"I still say that must have been some kind of glitch," Dib muttered, before shaking it off and making his way towards the grand staircase at the back of the room, "Anyway, come on. Most of the haunting activity is said to take place on the upper floors. And watch your step, these stairs look in pretty bad shape."

"Whatever," Gaz said, reluctantly following along. The pair carefully ascended the creaking and groaning stairs, reaching the next floor and finding a long hallway stretching in either direction, lined by rusty metal doors.

"These are the patients' rooms," Dib explained, walking towards the nearest door and shoving it open. The room this revealed was a cramped little cell, containing nothing but a bed with a rotted mattress sitting along one wall, restraint straps attached to it.

"Man, this is bleak," Dib commented, examining the padded walls that had long since fallen apart, "Can you imagine having to live in this?"

"No, but then again unlike you I don't have any experience to draw on," Gaz replied in a deadpan. Dib shot a dirty look at her, but before he could reply, there was a sudden noise from further down the hall.

"Did you hear that?! That's got to be a ghost!" Dib exclaimed, running down the hall towards another cell, the door for which was partially open. Squeezing through, he shined his phone's light on the room and saw… a rat, sitting perched atop the bed, next to a hole in the wall behind which some plaster was still crumbling from the rodent's passage.

"Wow, I didn't realize ghosts looked like rats," Gaz said dryly as she slowly came up behind Dib and peered into the room.

"Err… let's just keep looking around," Dib said awkwardly, leaving the cell and moving down the hall, Gaz rolling her eyes and following.

For the next several minutes, the pair walked up and down the hallway, finding nothing more than more empty patient rooms. Eventually finding a stairwell whose door had long since fallen off its hinges, Dib decided to ascend to the next floor. Reaching it revealed another long hallway, though this one had no doors in sight, and the signage on the opposite wall was too faded to properly read. Shrugging and picking a direction at random, Dib turned left and started walking down the hall in search of anything worthwhile. Before long, they reached a large door whose faded sign was still barely legible enough to read "Washroom".

"An old bathroom. Joy," Gaz said dryly, "Hoping to find a haunted urinal or something?"

"No, because this is a 'bath room' in the literal sense, as in where the patients were bathed," Dib explained, before shoving the door open and walking in. Gaz followed him, and was greeted by the sight of a room the size of a small ballroom. It was bare of pretty much anything but a series of old standing bathtubs, long since covered in grime. However, what caught Gaz's attention was what was running along the far wall of the room.

"Are those restraint straps?" she asked, pointing to the series of leather and metal straps in pairs at various points of the bare brick wall.

"Yeah, I've read about that," Dib said, looking slightly disturbed, "Patients who were too violent or erratic to safely use the tubs — or who were being punished for bad behavior — would be chained to the wall and hosed down instead, like animals."

"Urgh," Gaz muttered, finding even her minimalist empathy having trouble with that mental image. Before she could say anything else, though, a sudden high-pitched whistling sound cut through the air.

"A ghostly wail! That's definitely a sign of a spirit's presence!" Dib shouted happily, waving his phone around to try and spot the ghost, "Do you see anything? Or maybe feel a cold spot somewhere? Or-?"

"Hey genius. Look over here," Gaz interrupted, gesturing to one of the room's large, barred windows, which was missing several large chunks of its glass. Listening quietly confirmed that the whistling was coming from the wind rushing through those holes.

"Ah man, seriously?" Dib groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Can we go yet?" Gaz asked, hoping that her brother was finally ready to give up.

"Come on, we're barely been here a half-hour, and there's plenty more of the building to see," Dib replied, walking back into the hallway. Gaz moaned and followed after him.

Things continued in that vein for quite some time, as the siblings made their way through the building, wandering up and down between floors and across halls. They found more patient rooms, administrative offices, storage spaces, and what appeared to be a common area/cafeteria. And through it all, Dib kept hearing noises or seeing things out of the corner of his eye, each time thinking it was ghosts, only for it to turn out to be something completely mundane.

Needless to say, after nearly two hours of this, Gaz's patience was wearing dangerously thin. Despite this, however, her interest was still piqued slightly as she read the faded sign of the latest room they'd found.

"'ECT Lab'? That's electroshock, right?" she asked as she followed Dib through the doors.

"Yeah, and from what I've read it was even worse back then," Dib said, as he circled a mostly-intact surgical bed, "At least these days they sedate you first before shocking you. But back in the day, they'd just strap you down on a table like this and shock you into into unconsciousness."

"Was that before or after they'd lobotomize people?" Gaz asked, morbidly curious. Or maybe "curious about the morbid" would be putting it better.

"Actually, even back then lobotomies were a last resort thing, designed to pacify patients who couldn't be cured any other way," Dib explained, "So, you know, while patients would probably get electroshocked regularly, lobotomies were rare."

"Hmph, whatever, still kinda cool," Gaz commented, looking at the rusty device she assumed was the ECT machine gathering dust in the corner.

"I kinda doubt anyone who ever had to go through any of this would agree," Dib said dryly, "And before you make the crack I know you're going to, I never went through anything like this that one time I got locked up on Halloween."

Gaz rolled her eyes again, and instead of responding just crossed her arms and waited for what she was sure was going to be another red herring. As if on cue, there was a sudden thudding noise from the ceiling above them.

"Aha! Finally!" Dib shouted, jumping on top of the bed to better reach the ceiling.

"Seriously? You think ghosts hang out in ceiling crawlspaces?" Gaz asked in disbelief.

"It could happen!" Dib said, as he reached up to push against the ceiling tiles, "Now watch as I finally expose conclusive proof of-AH!"

Gaz watched, too dulled by this point to even be amused anymore, as several bats came flapping out of the tile Dib had moved and swarmed around him. He yelped and flapped his arms around in a wild panic to try and get rid of them, only to fall off the bed and land in a heap on the floor, at which point the bats seemed to lose interest, flying back into the ceiling. As Dib groaned where he lay, Gaz sighed in annoyance.

"Okay, I'm done," she said.

"Say what?" Dib asked, looking at her as he pulled himself back to his feet.

"I said I'm done. I have better things to do than watch you make a buffoon out of yourself," Gaz said, turning and walking out of the room.

"Wait, you can't just leave!" Dib protested, following after her, "We haven't found any sign of the ghosts yet!"

"There aren't any ghosts, moron! Or if there are, you're not gonna find them!" Gaz snapped, turning to face him, "And even if you did find actual proof, do you actually think that anyone would even look at it, let alone believe it?"

"Of course they would," Dib said, frowning, "If I can show definitive proof of the paranormal, people will _have_ to accept it!"

"No they won't, because most people don't want to believe in this crap!" Gaz said, "It's the same reason no one believes you about Zim, or Bigfoot, or anything else you rant about. But you keep ranting about it, which is why everyone doesn't like you. If you'd just shut up about it all, you wouldn't be such an outcast."

"The last time I gave up on the paranormal, you were one of the few people who tried to convince me to go back to it," Dib pointed out.

"I'm not saying give up on it altogether, just stop yapping about it," Gaz clarified, "Keep it to yourself and pretend to be normal, and everyone will leave you alone."

"You hate 'normal' people!"

"Yeah, which is why I ignore them, so they'll ignore me! You don't see me shoving my video games in the faces of people who don't care about them, do you?"

"No, but that's not really the same thing," Dib said, "I don't see how you can compare a hobby to a lifestyle choice, which is what paranormal investigation is for me."

"You're right, it's not the same thing, because I'm not choosing to let people think I'm a crazy freak who deserves to be locked up in a place like this!" Gaz said, Dib flinching in response. Seeing this, a very small part of Gaz twinged with guilt at her own wording, which had been harsher than she intended. However, as usual, she stamped down on it rather than act on it, and moved on.

"Whatever, like I said, I'm done," she said, throwing up her hands, "I'm going home, you do whatever you want."

Without waiting for a response, Gaz spun on her heel and marched down the hall, not pausing even as she pulled out her own phone's flashlight as she passed out of the light from Dib's. Already annoyed from both this entire pointless trip and now the brief fight, her frustration only grew as she waved her light around and realized she'd gotten turned around at some point in her and Dib's wandering through the building, and now she had no idea where she was in relation to the exit.

Grumbling angrily, Gaz stomped down the hall in a random direction, figuring that sooner or later she'd find a way back to the main doors they'd entered through. However, this proved to be harder than it sounded, as she kept finding herself walking in circles or hitting dead-ends. It took much longer than she had wanted, but eventually she found herself standing atop the grand staircase connecting the main foyer to the second floor.

"Finally," she muttered, as she started making her way down the rickety stairs. After only a few steps, however, she paused as she heard a rustling sound nearby and saw something slip through the shadows at the top of the staircase out of the corner of her eye.

"The hell?" she muttered, starting to turn around, "Dib, I swear if you're trying to scare me or something as payback, I'm gonna-"

And that was all she got out, before something suddenly swept out of the darkness right in front of her face, too close for her to make out anything other than a white shape and red eyes. Yelping in surprise, Gaz instinctively jumped back, which proved to be a mistake, as the step she landed on was too rotted to take the sudden jolt of all her weight landing on it all at once. With a sharp _crack_ it caved in, throwing her off balance, and before she could regain it she had fallen over and was tumbling full-speed down the stairs.

"Ah! Ow! Oof! Son of a-! AH!" Gaz yelled and cursed as she bounced off of each and every step, miraculously managing to avoid breaking her neck or anything else in the process. Though all things considered she'd call that small compensation for the pain, especially as she hit the floor rather hard.

Woozy and vision swimming, Gaz could only lie where she landed and stare listlessly upwards, catching sight of those red eyes looking down at her. Then everything went dark, and she slumped against the floor as unconsciousness took her.

XXXXXXX

Groaning as she regained her senses, Gaz opened her eyes to assess the damage from her fall, only to flinch and shut them again as a bright light filled her vision. A fact which took a moment to fully register, and when it did she furrowed her brow in confusion.

" _Wait a minute, this place was pitch black. Where's that light coming from?_ " she thought, before something else hit her, " _And what am I lying on? It's not comfortable, but it's definitely softer than the floor should be._ "

Opening her eyes again, this time just enough to squint against the light. This allowed her to see that she was looking up at a row of fluorescent lightbulbs installed in a utilitarian-looking ceiling. Frowning in further confusion at the sight, Gaz reached up to rub her pounding head, in the hopes that doing something about the headache she was feeling would clear things up… and something snagged her wrist, halting her hand midway.

"What?" Gaz muttered, turning to look at what was happening with her hand. She blinked in surprise as she saw a strap wrapped around her wrist, and her surprise turned to shock and even fear as she looked down at herself and saw similar straps restraining her legs and other arm as well.

"What the hell is going on?!" she exclaimed, looking around in disbelief, and realized she was laying on a bed in what she recognized as one of the patient rooms she and Dib had explored, but one that was still in pristine condition, its padded walls dull but intact and clean.

Looking down at herself again as she tugged desperately against the restraints holding her, Gaz froze as she noticed a rather prominent detail she'd overlooked in her initial look at her situation. And that was the fact that, rather than her own clothes, she was wearing what appeared to be a bland, off-white hospital gown of some kind. She could only stare, confusion and outrage competing for dominance in her as she tried to process the fact that someone had apparently not just stuck her in a padded cell and tied her to a bed, but had also _changed her clothes_ without her consent.

Just as the rage outgrew the confusion, a sound brought her attention to the other side of the room, Gaz turning to face it just in time to see the room's door open. To her further surprise, in walked a trio of women in old-fashioned nurse uniforms; the one in the lead was an older, thin women with a hook nose and a look of passive contempt that Ms. Bitters would have envied, while the other two were bulkier and frankly looked more like professional wrestlers than medical professionals.

"Good morning, Miss Membrane, how are we feeling today?" the lead nurse asked in a tone that suggested she didn't really care, paying more attention to a clipboard in her hands than Gaz.

"Who the hell are you? And what the hell's going on?!" Gaz demanded with a glare, as she continued to futilely strain against the restrains holding her down. In response, the nurse only gave a long-suffering sigh.

"So you're having another episode. Lovely, the doctor will love to hear that," the woman said dryly, making a note on her clipboard.

"An 'episode' of what? What are you talking about?" Gaz practically snarled at being treated so dismissively.

"Of your delusions, of course," the nurse replied, sounding as if she'd said this before, "To summarize, you're in the Burke Lunatic Asylum. You're a patient here, and have been for some time, due to suffering delusions of living in another time, and your violent reactions to people trying to drag you out of them."

"What? That's a load of crap!" Gaz snapped.

"Yes, you say that every time you have a relapse like this. It's gotten rather tiring, honestly," the nurse replied flatly, before turning to her two compatriots, "I'll inform the doctor, he'll deal with this when it's time for her session with him. In the meantime, get her up and started for the day."

"Hey, don't walk away from me!" Gaz shouted after the woman, who ignored her and left the room, leaving the other two to approach the restrained girl, "Listen, you two better let me go, or I-"

"Shut up and don't make this difficult, brat," one of the nurses huffed at her, while she and her partner unstrapped her from the bed. Once free, Gaz immediately jumped up and tried to squeeze past the nurses to run towards the door, but only made it a couple of steps before one of them slammed a fist into the side of her head, sending her stumbling to her knees. And before she could reorient herself, let alone try to resist some more, the nurses each grabbed one of her arms and lifted her up off her feet.

"Put me down! I'm not supposed to be here!" Gaz protested, legs kicking in the air as she tried without any luck to break free of their grips.

"Why do they always make this difficult?" one of the nurses asked her partner, the pair of them ignoring Gaz as they walked towards the door.

"I think it comes with the crazy," the other nurse said, as they emerged into the hallway. As they did, Gaz actually stopped her struggles in shock as she took in her surroundings. The hallways she'd seen had been run down and ruined, but now she was in a pristine, sterile white corridor lit by the same fluorescent lights as the padded room had; while not new, the place definitely looked a lot better than it had the last time she'd seen it.

" _What the hell is going on?_ " Gaz thought, too stunned to speak out loud, " _Did I go back in time or something? But then why are they acting like I've been here a long time? This doesn't make sense!_ "

Being so caught up in trying to figure out what was happening, Gaz barely noticed as the nurses carried her up a flight of stairs, and only really managed to snap back to full awareness as she realized they were approaching the bathing area she and Dib and found in their exploration, the sign on its door now fully readable as "Ladies Washroom". The nurses pushed open the door and entered, revealing that the room was also in prime condition — and also in use, as there were girls and women of various ages in several of the tubs, being scrubbed down by one or two nurses each.

More disturbingly, several other women were chained to the wall, being sprayed with high-pressure hoses. It looked just as messed up as Dib had described it to her.

"Okay brat, you know how it goes," one of Gaz's nurses said as they dumped her on the floor next to an empty tub, "You either behave and get the tub, or keep being a problem and get the hose. So, are we going to keep being tough on you, or do we start being kind?"

Gaz wanted to tell these overgrown gorillas of women exactly where they could stuff their kindness, but a glance at the people being hosed broke through her usual resolve. She was tough, but she didn't want to go through something that degrading if she could avoid it.

"…Can I at least wash myself?" she asked, glancing at the tubs where the other girls present were getting bathed by their nurses.

"No, it's against policy," one of the pair said, holding up a wire brush and a bar of soap, "Now strip and get in the tub."

What followed was the most uncomfortable bath in Gaz's life. And not only because the nurses weren't gentle in their scrubbing, or because of the humiliation of being bathed by someone else like she was an infant, but because the water was freezing. Literally, as at one point the nurses dumped a bucket of ice into the already cold water.

"C-couldn't you have u-used s-some warm w-water?" Gaz asked through chattering teeth as she got out of the tub and tried to dry off with the thin towel she was provided.

"Hot water's a privilege for sane people. Besides, the cold helps the brain heal from whatever's wrong with it," one of the nurses replied, before tossing a fresh gown and some slippers at her, "Now get dressed, and we'll take you down to breakfast."

Reluctantly obeying the orders, Gaz dressed in the provided clothes and followed the nurses out of the room. She was still pissed about being ordered around, and the situation in general, but if she was being given the option of _not_ getting carried around like luggage, she'd take it.

A few minutes later, they were on the ground floor, and walking into what Gaz had previously guessed was the combined common room and cafeteria. Now, like the rest of the asylum, it was fully restored and occupied; looking around, she could see people of both genders, ranging in age from as young as her to middle-aged, all wearing the same kind of hospital clothing as herself, sitting at the various tables spread across the room. Some were eating from metal trays, but others were playing with old board games, or working with arts and crafts supplies, or in some cases were just staring blankly into space.

"Go get your food, you've got an appointment with the doctor in an hour," one of the nurses said, shoving Gaz towards a line of people standing across one wall of the room.

"I don't suppose you'll listen if I point out, again, that I'm not supposed to be here?" Gaz growled, crossing her arms defiantly.

"Oh, sure. I mean, we've ignored you every other time you've said that, but we'll definitely listen this time," one of the nurses said, sarcasm thick enough to cut with a knife. Then she shoved Gaz towards the line again, before she and her partner wandered off. Grumbling angrily, Gaz kept her arms crossed and followed the line towards an alcove window covered by a mesh grate, flanked by a pair of burly men in orderlies' uniforms holding batons, and behind which was a more scrawny male orderly who was sliding trays to the patients through an opening at the bottom of the grate.

As Gaz reached the grate, the scrawny orderly checked a list of some kind. Then he placed a bowl of what appeared to be oatmeal on a tray, along with a plastic spoon, a plastic cup of water, and a paper cup holding several pills, and slid the tray out to her.

"What is this?" she demanded, gesturing to the pills.

"Your prescribed medication," the man replied. Like the nurses, he said this with a mixed tone of resignation and annoyance, like he'd said this many times before.

"I'll pass," she said, knocking the paper cup aside and spilling the pills. She then grabbed the tray, but before she could walk away with it, one of the more muscular orderlies slammed his baton into the wall right in front of her, making her jump in surprise.

"Prescriptions are mandatory," the orderly behind the grate said, still with the same tone, "You _will_ take yours."

"Make me, you- HEY!" Gaz insult was cut off as one of the burly orderlies suddenly grabbed her from behind and lifted her up. Pinning her with one arm, he used his other hand to force her jaws apart, allowing his partner to scoop up the spilled pills and shove them into her mouth, before pouring some water from the cup in as well in order to force her to swallow. As Gaz sputtered and coughed, the first orderly dropped her to the floor.

"Now move along, you're holding up the line," the orderly behind the grate said calmly, not even looking at where Gaz was lying on her hands and knees. She glared up at him, but the other orderlies match her with glares of their own; not feeling like being further manhandled, she stood up to grab the tray presented to her and stomped off to sit down at the nearest empty table.

Dropping the tray onto the table and herself onto an uncomfortable bench next to it, Gaz glared at the bowl of gruel-like oatmeal. Ignoring the rumbling of her stomach at the sight of the pathetic excuse for food, Gaz tapped her fingers against the table's surface as she took the chance to finally properly process things.

" _This has to be time travel or something,_ " she thought, " _Maybe I fell through some kind of portal and wound up here. But everyone seems to know me… maybe I somehow replaced an actual patient? Wait, no, that first nurse called me by name. Ugh, this makes no sense!_ "

Gaz's thoughts were swirling, which was made even worse as a strange fuzziness started to settle on her brain. Scowling, she reached up to rub her head, and her scowl deepened as she noticed how wooden and numb her limbs felt.

" _What the hell was in those pills?_ " she wondered, " _I need to shake this off if I'm going to get out of here. Then I'll-_ "

_SPLAT_

Gaz's train of thought was cut off as something splattered against her head, hitting her hard enough to nearly knock her forward.

"Ack! What?" Gaz sputtered, reaching up and finding a glob of oatmeal smeared across the side of her head. Hearing snickering, she turned to a nearby table and found a group of late-teenaged patients seated there, smirking at her and quietly laughing. One of them, a bulky boy with a noticeably manic smile, was still holding up the spoon that had evidently flung the oatmeal at her.

"Oops, sorry about that, Future Girl," the boy said with a sarcastic laugh.

"Hey, if you're from the future, shouldn't you have known that was going to happen?" a girl with stringy black hair asked with a sneer, causing her table mates to laugh some more.

Gaz couldn't believe this. Was she actually being picked on by the mental hospital equivalent of high school popular kids? That was just a step too far after all the other crap she'd already been through. Gritting her teeth, she took hold of her bowl and stood up. Trying to ignore how stiff and slow she felt, she walked over to the other table and glared at the stringy-haired girl, who she had a strong feeling was the leader of the group.

"You got a problem with me?" she demanded of the older girl.

"Yeah, my problem is that you're a weirdo even by nut house standards," the girl replied, glaring back at her, "Now why don't you hop in whatever time machine you think you've got, and-GAH!"

Gaz cut the girl off by tossing the bowl of oatmeal at her, hitting her dead in the face. As she sputtered, Gaz spun and tried to throw a punch at the bulky boy before he could react. Unfortunately, her drug-induced sluggishness slowed her down, and she missed by a wide margin as the boy dodged her and got up. And before she could reorient herself, the boy grabbed her and tossed her aside, sending her falling to the floor. Pushing herself to a kneeling position, she looked up and saw that the whole group had gotten up from the table and were now looming over her.

"Okay, you little bitch, I'm gonna enjoy this," the stringy-haired girl said, holding out a plastic utensil of some kind that had been broken and sharpened into a makeshift knife. She hefted it in preparation to strike, while Gaz tried to will her body to move…

"Hey! Knock it off, Patrica!" a voice called from behind Gaz.

"Mind your own business, freak," the stringy-haired girl, Patrica apparently, replied, glaring past Gaz at the speaker. Gaz turned to face that direction as well, and blinked as she saw a girl maybe a couple of years older than herself, who appeared to be entirely chalk white except for her red eyes; Gaz's drug-addled mind needed a few moments to process that she was looking at an albino. And even then, there was something about her that gave Gaz _deja vu_ …

"A bunch of bullies picking on someone half their size seems like my business," the albino replied, "I mean seriously, don't all of us in this hellhole have enough to worry about without turning it into a schoolyard? Are you really that childish?"

"I'll show you childish," Patricia snarled, holding up her shiv, "In fact, I think I'll carve the word into that freakish face of yours."

"Go ahead," the albino replied, nodding her head towards where the orderlies were hanging out, apparently not having noticed the situation yet, "Let's see how the staff react to that little toy of yours. You've managed to hide it from them so far, you really want to risk them finding it? I'd hate to think what the doctor would do to you."

Patricia paled, while her cronies all winced and slightly backed away from her. Glancing over to the orderlies, she tucked the shiv away wherever she'd been hiding it, and shot another glare at both Gaz and the albino.

"I'll deal with both of you some other time," she spat, before turning and stalking off, her group following after her.

"Geez, what a bitch," the albino muttered, before turning to Gaz and leaning down to offer her a hand, "You alright?"

"Buzz off, I don't need help," Gaz snapped, smacking the offered hand away and unsteadily getting back to her feet.

"Okay, no need to get testy," the other girl said, backing away slightly but not sounding too offended by Gaz's reaction, "By the way, your name's Gaz, right? I'm Maddie."

"I don't care," Gaz said, shoving past Maddie and making her way back to her previous seat, where she let herself collapse against the table and stew in the humiliation of, for the first time, needing someone to bail her out of a fight.

" _Dammit, whatever they drugged me with is seriously messing me up,_ " she thought darkly, " _I feel like I've got a concussion or something… wait, that's right, I hit my head! After falling down those stairs! Then I probably got knocked out, and this is all just some messed up nightmare… but then why does it all feel so real?_ "

Gaz couldn't come up with a decent answer to that, and thus could only sit there until an orderly came over and grabbed her by the shoulder to get her attention, telling her it was time for her session with the doctor. Knowing she'd be dragged along anyway if she tried to resist, and still feeling too out of it from the drugs to try and fight, she just sighed and stood up, allowing the orderly to escort her from the room.

Ascending to another floor, Gaz was soon led to a door marked by a sign that read "Doctor Burke, Administrator". The orderly knocked, and after receiving an affirming call from the other side, opened the door pushed Gaz inside. Once through the doorway, she was greeted by the sight of a well-furbished and office, and more importantly the sight of the man she assumed was Dr. Burke himself, a thin, middle-aged man with close-cropped greying brown hair and wearing a white coat. As Gaz entered the room, he looked at her with cold blue eyes and gave a smile that was neither as warm or comforting as it was probably meant to be.

"Ah, Miss Membrane. Please take a seat," he said, gesturing to the chair facing his desk, "And how are we doing today?"

"You mean aside from being locked up and drugged for no reason?" she asked with a snarl as she sat down, crossing her arms and glaring at him.

"Ah yes, Nurse Ratchet said that you'd had a relapse into your delusions," Burke said with a deep sigh, "A shame, you were making such progress."

"Look, jackass, I am not delusional, I-"

"Now, now, there's no need for such language," Burke scolded lightly, "But then, on some level I suppose I can't blame you. After all, this fantasy world you've built for yourself — miniature cinemas in every home, telephones that can fit in your pocket, machines that cook your food for you, all those other little elements you've cooked up that sound like they're out of a science-fiction magazine — is absolutely fascinating, and on some level even appealing. Especially so for an orphan like yourself, I imagine."

"Wha- I'm not an orphan!" Gaz exclaimed, caught off guard by the out of nowhere comment.

"Then I suppose this isn't you in this photograph?" Burke asked, opening a folder and holding up a picture from within it. It was a grainy black-and-white photo of a rundown-looking schoolhouse, an old sign that read "St. Jhonen's Home For Orphans" displayed prominently next to the building. Assembled in front of the building was a group of boys and girls of various young ages… and dead center, wearing an old-fashioned dress and glaring at whomever took the picture, Gaz saw her own face.

"I, I don't, that's not…" Gaz stuttered, unable to wrap her head around what she was looking at.

"I'm afraid it is indeed you," Burke said, "An only child orphaned at infancy, spending your whole life in an orphanage and by all accounts seemingly completely unable to forge friendships or connections of any kind with those around you… well, as I said, I can't really blame you for creating a fantasy world for yourself to retreat into. But, when you start treating fantasy as reality, that's when you become an aberration that society cannot accept. But don't worry, we can fix you in time."

"'Aberration' my ass!" Gaz snarled, confusion quickly being replaced by anger at the insult. Desperate for something to snap back with, she latched onto the only theory she'd had so far that made any sense, "And you wanna talk about reality? You're not even real! This is just some nightmare I'm having from hitting my head!"

Gaz wasn't sure what kind of reaction that declaration was going to have, but all that Burke did was sigh and pinch the bridge of his nose.

"And now you've slipped all the way back into the solipsistic belief that your delusions are reality and vice-versa. That's disappointing, but I suppose we'll just have to start from scratch," Burke said. Before Gaz could ask what that was supposed to mean, the doctor a pressed a button on his desk's surface, and the door to the office opened to admit both the orderly who had escorted Gaz and another one.

"It seems Miss Membrane is due for a round of advanced treatment. Take her to the ECT room," Burke ordered the men, Gaz's eyes widening in response.

"No fucking way! You're not electroshocking me!" she shouted, jumping out of the chair and preparing to throw herself at the doctor in a rage. However, she never got the chance, as the orderlies grabbed hold of her and dragged her down the hall, kicking and screaming. Before long, they were in the ECT lab, strapping the struggling Gaz down to the bed.

"You can't do this to me! You can't-MMPH!" Gaz's pleads and threats were cut off as a plastic gag was stuffed in her mouth, its leather straps wrapped around her head to keep it in place.

"Quite the protest for someone who believes nothing around her is real," Burke said with smug amusement as he loomed over her and watched as his orderlies attached electrodes to Gaz's head, "But that sort of erratic, inconsistent behavior is just another sign of your illness, and we will deal with it. So just relax, Miss Membrane, and we'll rewire your brain into a functioning state in no time."

Gaz could only whimper as Burke gestured to the orderlies. There was a humming as the machine came to life…

…

…

…And the next thing Gaz knew, she was once again sitting at a table in the common room.

"What?" she asked dumbly, blinking and looking around in confusion.

"Oh, you're back," a familiar voice said from nearby. Turning to face it, Gaz saw Maddie the albino girl sitting across the table, sketching something on a piece of paper with a piece of charcoal.

"How did I…? I was in the ECT room," Gaz said, not sure what was happening.

"Yeah, that's the upside of electroshock," Maddie commented, "Most people who undergo it blackout the experience, so they don't remember the pain. Downside is that it tends to leave them wandering around in a daze for a while. You must have gotten particularly fried, though; you've been sitting there staring blankly all day. You ate both lunch and dinner like someone sleepwalking… though considering the quality of the food they give us, that might be a blessing."

Gaz didn't know how to react to that. She felt drained and lifeless, and the fussiness in her head was stronger than ever. Was that from the electroshock, or had she been drugged again with the meals she didn't even remember eating?

She could only groan and plant her head against the tabletop. She'd never felt this powerless before, and it was overwhelming her. This _had_ to be a nightmare, but if it was, it was taking its sweet time to end already.

"You alright?" Maddie asked. Gaz lifted her head and shot her a mild glare, which was all she could manage.

"Why do you even care? You don't know me," she said.

"Common decency, I suppose," Maddie replied with a shrug, "Besides, I don't see why everyone is making a big deal about your condition. Doesn't seem that big of a deal to me what you believe, as long as you're not hurting anyone."

"I'm not… oh, forget it," Gaz muttered, too tired at this point to protest her sanity, "And what are you in here for anyway? Do people think being albino makes you crazy?"

"No, I'm in here because I've been loudly protesting that just because I don't look quote-unquote 'normal', I shouldn't be treated differently from everyone else," Maddie said with a frown, "Or, for that matter, that people of any kind shouldn't be treated differently from what's accepted as the norm if they don't match it. But apparently that's crazy talk brought about by undiagnosed brain deformities caused by my albinism, according to the doctor."

Gaz was surprised to hear such a progressive statement coming from someone living in what she assumed was supposed to be the 1940s or earlier. Though she could at least appreciate the scorn aimed at the doctor at the end there.

"Pretty sure that's not how albinism works," she commented dryly.

"It's not, but try telling that to the oh-so-wise old man who's convinced his doctorate makes him omniscient," Maddie replied in a similar tone. Gaz snorted, but before she could say anything else, the lead nurse — Ratchet, apparently — entered the room with a group of other nurses and orderlies.

"Alright, everyone. Time for bed. Let's get you all back to your rooms, without any trouble," she announced, shooting harsh looks at several patients on that last bit, including at Gaz.

"Well, see you in the morning," Maddie said, getting up from the table and allowing a nurse to escort her out of the room.

"Hopefully not," Gaz muttered, as her own escorts loomed over her. Huffing a breath in a mixture anger and exhaustion, she allowed the nurses to walk her back to the room she'd started this nightmare in. Before long, she had been strapped back into the bed, and the nurses left the room, the lights shutting off a few minutes later and leaving Gaz laying there in pitch blackness.

"It's just a nightmare, just a nightmare," she muttered, shutting her eyes tightly, "I'm going to wake up now. I'm going to wake up, and I'll be back in my normal life. Wake up, wake up, wake up…"

She kept muttering those same two words over and over like a mantra, until weariness overcame her and she fell asleep.

XXXXXXX

Unfortunately for Gaz, she was still strapped to the bed in that padded room when she woke up the next morning. And the morning after that, and the morning after that…

She quickly lost track of how long she was stuck in this predicament, as the days blurred together. It was always the same sequence of events — she'd wake up in that bed, be dragged to the washroom and given an ice bath, taken to breakfast and given a mix of gruel and those damned mind-numbing pills, and then taken to meet with Doctor Burke. And that was always the worst part of each day, the way that condescending bastard would look down on her, telling her that everything she knew was wrong, and then sending her off to be electroshocked if she did more than slightly raise her voice in return.

And even that wasn't the worst part, since she kept blacking out the actual electroshocking. No, the absolutely worst part was the way he kept gaslighting her, showing her pictures or films of her supposed "real life" at the orphanage, or playing audio recordings of what he said were early sessions between the two of them, where she heard her own voice ranting near-incoherently about being from the future. Deep down, she knew this all wasn't real, that this had to just be some messed up manifestation of her subconscious, but having all of this constantly thrown at her, while the monotony and the drugs and the electroshock wore down at her willpower and ability to think clearly… and it was all getting to be too much for her.

Which was why she now found herself, fresh off a round of electroshock, seated in a corner of the common room, back against the wall and hugging her knees to her chest. She barely noticed what she was doing as she slowly rocked back and forth, muttering to herself as she tried to cling to her grasp on reality as she knew it.

"I'm not crazy, I'm not crazy," she muttered, "I couldn't have dreamt up my entire life. I have over a decade of memories, they can't all be delusions. But if this is all a dream or an illusion, why can't I just wake up out of it? Please, I just want to wake up."

"Hey, are you okay?" Maddie asked as she approached Gaz, looking down at her in clear concern.

"Oh, I'm fine. I'm just questioning my sanity and everything I thought I knew about my life, that's all!" Gaz snapped, glaring up at the albino, "Seriously, why do you keep asking me that?!"

"Because you really look like you could use it," Maddie replied, unfazed by Gaz's outburst, "I mean, of everyone here, you definitely seem to be having the worst time of it. And honestly, I truly believe that when the whole world's telling you that you're crazy, having just one person to tell you that you're not can be the only thing that lets you keep everything together. So please, let me help you in a way the staff here can't."

Gaz could only stare at her for several moments, before her desperation and frustration finally came bubbling to the top, and she let it all out.

"I'm not supposed to be here!" Gaz exclaimed, "I'm not crazy, I _know_ I'm not! But I just… I just can't take this anymore! I'm going to just tell Burke what he wants to hear, maybe then one way or another I can leave."

"…You know, there's something about you that reminds me of myself," Maddie said after a moment of thought, Gaz looking at her in confusion, "You're a strong spirit, that these assholes want to break down to fit their set ideas of what's 'normal' and 'right'. Now, I don't know if you're really delusional or actually from the future, but you definitely believe what you believe, and as long as it's harmless I say that these people have no right to force you to change that. So, don't give them the satisfaction of giving up and conforming to their mold."

It wasn't the most thrilling or inspirational speech that Gaz had ever heard, but something struck a chord with her. She was not a quitter, she never had been, and she wasn't about to start now. She refused to believe that this nightmare was reality, and even if it was, she was never going to accept it. At this point, she didn't even care what else they would do to her if she kept fighting back, but it couldn't possibly be any worse, and if nothing else she'd at least go down fighting instead of just giving up her sense of self.

"You know what, you're right," Gaz said, regaining her composure and getting to her feet, "I know who I am, and no one else is going to tell me otherwise… thank you."

Maddie gave a nod and smile in response, before walking away. Gaz barely watched her go, instead focusing on her next step. Ultimately, she found herself coming up with only one solid plan; with luck, it would break down this whole fake setup and snap her back to reality, and even if it didn't, it would show that she wasn't broken so easily.

Taking a deep breath to steady herself, she scanned the room, and Patricia's group at their usual table. The bitch had harassed her a few other times during the blur of days spent here, though from what she overheard, most of it was during her blackout periods when she was in a zombified state, so she at least didn't have to deal with remembering most of it. And in any case, the wannabe queen bee was about to help her in a big way.

When the group got up and walked away, getting ready to be escorted back to their rooms as bedtime approached, Gaz casually approached their table, and discreetly reached for the underside of it. She hadn't spent nearly as much time lucid in this room as she'd like, given the electroshock-induced blackouts, but she had spent enough to figure out that Patricia hid her shiv in a groove running under this table overnight, so that it wouldn't be discovered and confiscated. Now, she took it for herself, reversing her grip and pressing its flat side against her arm in order to hide it up the sleeve of her gown.

Taking another calming breath and readying herself, Gaz then walked over towards the room's main door, which was flanked by a pair of orderlies. They gave her apathetic looks as she approached, though they glowered as she stopped and glared up at them.

"I want to talk to the doctor. Now," she said.

"It's almost light's out. Wait for your appointment tomorrow," one of the orderlies replied firmly.

"Sure. But see, I think I just had a big breakthrough," Gaz said, "But if I don't talk to the doctor about it right away, I might backslide from it, and I don't think he'd be happy about that. Or about you keeping me from talking to him when I needed to."

The orderlies scowled at her, but after exchanging looks they nodded, with one of them moving from his spot and opening the door.

"Follow me. And don't try anything," he ordered. Gaz grunted in acknowledgment and followed the man, making sure to keep her acquired weapon carefully concealed, knowing that she'd only have one shot at this.

Reaching Burke's office, the orderly knocked and stuck his head inside the room, exchanging some quick muffled words with the doctor. Then he withdrew and gestured for Gaz to enter, shutting the door behind her once she passed him.

"Well, Miss Membrane, this is a surprise," Doctor Burke said, smiling smugly at her from across the desk, "But I am pleased to hear that you're finally making progress."

"I doubt you'll be feeling like that for long," Gaz replied as she approached the desk, Burke's smile fading as she did so.

"Oh? And why is that?" Burke asked coldly, narrowing his eyes at her, "And what exactly is this breakthrough that you claim you've had?"

"It's me realizing that I've been letting you have power over me," Gaz said, keeping her tone steady even as her rage started to boil over, "And regardless of whether I'm actually crazy, or this is just a bad dream, _no one_ controls me. I decide who I am and what I do with my life, and no one's going to tell me otherwise."

"…Well, this is disappointing," Burke said after a moment, "I really thought we were making progress. But you just seem to be clinging to these delusions, aren't you?"

"You're goddamn right," Gaz said. And then, before Burke could react, she leapt up onto the desk, pulling out the shiv and bringing it down on him. Burke yelled and jumped aside, so the shiv missed its intended target on his face and instead sliced along his shoulder. Gaz's momentum kept her moving forward, however, and she roughly tackled the doctor, the impact knocking him out of his chair and onto the floor. Scrambling to stay on top of him, Gaz screamed and swung the shiv wildly and trying to get around his arms as he defended himself, not even caring about aiming as she vented her amassed anger and need for vengeance.

Then she was being grabbed from behind as the orderly burst into the room and grabbed her in a bearhug. Still yelling wildly, Gaz flailed in the large man's grip, trying to stab him and make him let her go, but stopped as something suddenly pierced her arm. Looking down, she saw that Burke — bleeding from several small cuts on his face, arms, and shoulders — had just stuck a needle into her. And whatever was in it must have been pretty strong, because the next thing she knew her entire body went limp, the shiv falling from her hand.

"Are you okay, doctor?" the orderly asked.

"Yes, I'm fine, she didn't do more than nick me," Burke replied, looking himself over before glaring at Gaz, "You ungrateful little bitch! Don't you realize I'm trying to help you?! Don't you want to be normal, like everyone else?!"

"'ck 'ou," Gaz slurred, cursing the man as well as she could while her tongue felt like a lump of lead in her mouth. The point clearly got across, though, as Burke's already angry face twisted in pure rage, before he forced himself calm.

"Very well. It seems we have no other choice but to go to the final option," he said.

"You sure, sir?" the orderly asked, sounding uncertain.

"Yes," Burke replied firmly, "Take her down to the operating room. I'll be right there after I patch myself up."

Gaz wasn't entirely sure what they were talking about, but something at the back of her mind was setting off warning bells. However, with her entire body numbed into immobility there was nothing she could do as she was carried like a sack down the hall to a room set up similarly to the ECT room, but lacking the electroshock machine. She was placed on the table and strapped down, with a strap also being placed across her head, which all seemed a bit redundant given that she still couldn't move. Then, oddly, adhesives were applied to her eyelids to keep them peeled open.

A short while later, during which her body remained completely unresponsive, Burke entered the room, bandages covering his minor wounds and now wearing medical scrubs and a mask. He was carrying a cloth-covered tray, which he placed on a stand next to the table, before turning to face her.

"Well, Miss Membrane, I'm sorry it's come to this," he said, sounding anything but regretful, "But if you're not going to let us help you conform to what society wants, and persist in being abnormal, we'll just have to take drastic measures."

With a melodramatic flourish, Burke took the cloth off the tray and lifted its contents — a small hammer, and what looked like an ice pick. If Gaz's eyes hadn't already been forced wide open, they'd be doing so right now in shock, as she realized what was about to happen.

"You know, we should be glad we live in times of such advanced medical knowledge," Burke said, examining the tools closely before turning back to her, "Years ago, lobotomies worked by drilling holes into the skull and cutting out chunks of the brain. Now all I have to do is drive this pick through the space between your eyeball and its socket, and I'll destroy the part of your brain causing all these delusions and violent tendencies… admittedly, you'll probably also lose your ability to speak, most conscious thought, and bowel control, but some sacrifices have to be made, I suppose."

Gaz was terrified as Burke got in position and aimed the pick right over her, but she refused to let it show. If this wasn't real, it wouldn't matter anyway, but if it was, she'd be damned if she let this bastard see her afraid of him.

"Now then, there will be some pain, but it will be over quickly," Burke said, positing the hammer over the pick. Then without further preamble, he brought it down hard.

And then there was just blackness.

XXXXXXX

With a strangled scream, Gaz shot up into a sitting position. And then she blinked in confusion, as she processed that she was even able to move in the first place.

"Gaz! Are you okay?!" Dib's panicked voice called from nearby.

"Wha? Dib?" she asked groggily, looking around. To her surprise, and relief, she was no longer in the operation room with Doctor Burke looming over her. Instead, she was lying on the floor of the rundown asylum foyer, back in her own clothes instead of the patient gown, and with Dib sitting on his knees next to her with a look of concern on his face.

"What happened?" Gaz groaned, rubbing her sore head and wincing as she felt a large bump on the back.

"I don't know, I just found you lying here. I think you fell down the stairs," Dib replied, glancing to a broken step on the stairway.

"Yeah… yeah, I remember now," Gaz said, grimacing at the pounding in her head and trying to push away what had clearly been a nightmare after all to focus on what had really happened, "Something suddenly came up behind me and got right in my face, and I lost my balance. Something with red eyes…"

A squeaking noise suddenly caught the siblings' attention, and they looked up. Hanging from a light fixture was a large, and oddly white-furred, bat. It looked down at them, bright red eyes shining in the light from Dib's phone.

"Huh, an albino bat," Dib commented, arching an eyebrow, "Those are rare. But yeah, if that suddenly popped up in front of you, I can see it startling you enough to make you fall."

"Yeah, that makes sense," Gaz said, continuing to rub her head. While maintaining her calm on the outside, inside she felt practically giddy with relief — she had been right, it was just a nightmare. An incredibly realistic and terrifying nightmare, but a nightmare nonetheless.

"Anyway, are you sure you're okay?" Dib asked, turning back to her.

"I'm fine, I just had a messed up nightmare while I was knocked out. It's nothing," she said, trying to brush the whole thing off.

"Well, let me take a look at you anyway, to make sure you don't have a concussion or something," Dib said, holding his light up to her face. Gaz grunted, but opened her eyes and let him examine her.

As her brother carefully looked her over, Gaz couldn't stop her mind from drifting back to their last conversation. Leaving aside the disorientation of realizing that it had probably only been a few minutes ago when her nightmare had lasted what felt like weeks, she was barely able to repress a wince as she remembered what she'd said to him. Especially when she realized that her nightmare had essentially put her in his position, of being absolutely right about something but having everyone tell her that she was crazy for believing it.

And suddenly, she found herself remembering what Maddie had told her near the end of the nightmare, " _I truly believe that when the whole world's telling you that you're crazy, having just one person to tell you that you're not can be the only thing that lets you keep everything together._ "

Well, Gaz was the only person who knew that Dib wasn't crazy for believing in the paranormal. So, maybe that whole thing had been her subconscious telling her that she shouldn't be so dismissive towards him?

" _Ugh, guilt sucks,_ " she thought, as Dib finished his examination.

"So, your pupils aren't abnormally dilated, so I think you're okay," he said, "Still, we better get you home and have Dad look you over to be sure."

"Yeah, thanks," she muttered, before huffing a breath and reluctantly adding, "And… I'm sorry. About what I said before."

Dib blinked in surprise, then looked at her weirdly.

"…On second thought, maybe you _are_ concussed," he said. Gaz punched him in the shoulder.

"Shut up! Being nice isn't easy for me," she grumbled, "Look, like I said, I had a messed up nightmare, and it kinda put things in perspective for me. So, you know, forget what I said. Don't give up on what you believe in just because most people think it's crazy; most people are idiots, so who cares what they think?"

"Wow, that's oddly touching, coming from you," Dib said with a smile, "That must have been one heck of a nightmare to make you change your view about something like that."

"Oh, you have no idea," Gaz muttered, "Now get me outta here. I need to get home and try to get back into my right headspace."

"Sure thing," Dib said, helping Gaz to her feet and handing over her dropped phone. The two then made their way towards the front doors, Gaz walking a bit faster than usual as a firm desire to get the hell out of this building for good took hold on her. Despite this, while Dib exited, she paused in the doorway and turned back to give the foyer one last look…

And there, floating in midair and glowing ethereally, was Maddie, the albino smiling and giving her a small wave.

Gaz stared, then blinked, and just as quickly as she had appeared, the apparent ghost had now vanished. Gaz blinked a few more times, but the apparition didn't reappear.

"Everything alright?" Dib asked, as he noticed his sister wasn't following him.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Gaz replied quickly, shaking her head and writing it off as imagining things. She turned on her heel and quickly followed Dib off the property, the siblings soon putting the Burke Asylum well behind them.

Once they were gone, a strong wind came from nowhere and shut the hospital's doors closed again, leaving the old building to its memories and its ghosts.

**Author's Note:**

> Insert Rod Sterling-style narration, questioning if Gaz's nightmare was a vision given to her by ghosts to teach her a lesson or just a concussion-induced manifestation of subconscious guilt, here.
> 
> Also, I'm aware I was pretty blunt with the story's moral of "people should be allowed to believe whatever they want as long as it's not hurting anyone, and trying to force them to change is wrong". But, I've never been that good with writing Aesops. So, sorry if that detracted from the story any.
> 
> Anyway, as I said up top, my original idea for this story was pure horror. Dib was going to investigate the asylum on his own, seemingly having several ghostly encounters which nearly cause bodily harm, only for it turn out to be Gaz gaslighting him as a cruel prank and not caring if he gets hurt. Then in a twist ending, before she could leave she'd be seized by the actual ghosts and dragged off to be tortured in order to "cure" her clearly sociopathic behavior.
> 
> As you can probably tell, I thought that original idea up pre-"Enter the Florpus", when I mostly just hated Gaz. Post-ETF, however, my views on her have become more nuanced, so I didn't feel comfortable subjecting her to a fate like that and decided to abandon the story idea… until recently, when I somehow randomly came up with the concept of the story as you just read, wherein Gaz suffers a little, but for the purpose of learning not to be so harsh in her treatment of Dib.
> 
> But in any case, I hope you liked the story. It was a bit different from what I usually do, and I did put effort into it.
> 
> Once again, a belated happy Halloween to you all, and please stay safe and healthy out there. See you all in whatever story I do next.
> 
> Please comment!


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